Tesla Announces Megapack: Utility-Scale Energy Storage
July 29th, 2019Big guns.
Via: Tesla:
Less than two years ago, Tesla built and installed the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in Hornsdale, South Australia, using Tesla Powerpack batteries. Since then, the facility saved nearly $40 million in its first year alone and helped to stabilize and balance the region’s unreliable grid.
Battery storage is transforming the global electric grid and is an increasingly important element of the world’s transition to sustainable energy. To match global demand for massive battery storage projects like Hornsdale, Tesla designed and engineered a new battery product specifically for utility-scale projects: Megapack.
Megapack significantly reduces the complexity of large-scale battery storage and provides an easy installation and connection process. Each Megapack comes from the factory fully-assembled with up to 3 megawatt hours (MWhs) of storage and 1.5 MW of inverter capacity, building on Powerpack’s engineering with an AC interface and 60% increase in energy density to achieve significant cost and time savings compared to other battery systems and traditional fossil fuel power plants. Using Megapack, Tesla can deploy an emissions-free 250 MW, 1 GWh power plant in less than three months on a three-acre footprint – four times faster than a traditional fossil fuel power plant of that size. Megapack can also be DC-connected directly to solar, creating seamless renewable energy plants.
For utility-size installations like the upcoming Moss Landing project in California with PG&E, Megapack will act as a sustainable alternative to natural gas “peaker” power plants. Peaker power plants fire up whenever the local utility grid can’t provide enough power to meet peak demand. They cost millions of dollars per day to operate and are some of the least efficient and dirtiest plants on the grid. Instead, a Megapack installation can use stored excess solar or wind energy to support the grid’s peak loads.
Capital One Data Breach Hits More than 100 Million People Applying for Credit
July 29th, 2019Via: CBS:
Capital One said a hacker got access to the personal information of over 100 million individuals applying for credit. The McLean, Virginia-based bank said Monday it found out about the vulnerability in its system July 19 and immediately sought help from law enforcement to catch the perpetrator.
The FBI has arrested the person, reportedly in Seattle, according to a report in The Washington Post. Court records state a woman, identified as Paige A. Thompson, was arrested on charges of computer fraud and abuse Monday, according to CNET. Prosecutors say the hack took place between March 12 and July 17.
6G Mobile Networks: “Real-Time Remote Access to Human Brain-Level AI”
July 29th, 2019Mmm hmm.
Via: Venture Beat:
As 5G networks continue to expand in cities and countries across the globe, key researchers have already started to lay the foundation for 6G deployments roughly a decade from now. This time, they say, the key selling point won’t be faster phones or wireless home internet service, but rather a range of advanced industrial and scientific applications — including wireless, real-time remote access to human brain-level AI computing.
That’s one of the more interesting takeaways from a new IEEE paper published by NYU Wireless’s pioneering researcher Dr. Ted Rappaport and colleagues, focused on applications for 100 gigahertz (GHz) to 3 terahertz (THz) wireless spectrum. As prior cellular generations have continually expanded the use of radio spectrum from microwave frequencies up to millimeter wave frequencies, that “submillimeter wave” range is the last collection of seemingly safe, non-ionizing frequencies that can be used for communications before hitting optical, x-ray, gamma ray, and cosmic ray wavelengths.
Apple Contractors Regularly Hear Siri Recordings of Drug Deals, Medical Details and People Having Sex
July 29th, 2019
Via: Guardian:
Apple contractors regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control, or “grading”, the company’s Siri voice assistant, the Guardian has learned.
Although Apple does not explicitly disclose it in its consumer-facing privacy documentation, a small proportion of Siri recordings are passed on to contractors working for the company around the world. They are tasked with grading the responses on a variety of factors, including whether the activation of the voice assistant was deliberate or accidental, whether the query was something Siri could be expected to help with and whether Siri’s response was appropriate.
Apple says the data “is used to help Siri and dictation … understand you better and recognise what you say”.
But the company does not explicitly state that that work is undertaken by humans who listen to the pseudonymised recordings.
Apple told the Guardian: “A small portion of Siri requests are analysed to improve Siri and dictation. User requests are not associated with the user’s Apple ID. Siri responses are analysed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements.” The company added that a very small random subset, less than 1% of daily Siri activations, are used for grading, and those used are typically only a few seconds long.
A whistleblower working for the firm, who asked to remain anonymous due to fears over their job, expressed concerns about this lack of disclosure, particularly given the frequency with which accidental activations pick up extremely sensitive personal information.
1,400 Arrested at Moscow Election Protest
July 28th, 2019Via: AFP:
Russian police arrested nearly 1,400 people as they gathered in Moscow at the weekend to demand free and fair elections, a monitor said Sunday, the biggest such crackdown in years.
About 3,500 people took part in the unauthorised protest on Saturday according to official figures, after authorities blocked prominent opposition candidates from taking part in municipal elections.
‘Top Gun’ Sequel, Co-Produced by China’s Tencent, Drops Japanese and Taiwanese Flags
July 26th, 2019Via: Japan Times:
Eagle-eyed viewers have spotted a curious discrepancy in the first trailer for “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the beloved ’80s classic “Top Gun,” which Paramount debuted Thursday — the patches on the iconic leather jacket worn by star Tom Cruise no longer bear the Taiwanese and Japanese flags.
One possible reason for the difference could be that “Top Gun: Maverick” is being produced, in part, by Tencent Pictures, a Chinese film distributor and production company.
False Self Employment: Google’s YouTube Business Practices Possibly Illegal in Europe
July 26th, 2019LET ME SHOW YOU ITS FEATURES!
Via: JoergSprave:
Related: FairTube
Florida Lawmaker Told to Back Off Call for Probe of Jeffrey Epstein’s Work Release
July 25th, 2019Via: Miami Herald:
Florida Sen. Lauren Book has reached out to Capitol police after receiving an anonymous warning connected to her demand for a state inquiry into Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s handling of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s lenient work release program, the Miami Herald has learned.
Book, a vocal advocate for child sexual assault survivors, said she also received more than a dozen calls from Bradshaw’s political supporters asking her to back off on her call for an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into Bradshaw.
Related: Claim: Acosta Told Trump Transition Team, “Epstein Belonged to Intelligence,” Leave It Alone
New ‘Monarch’ Brain Device Approved for ADHD
July 25th, 2019You couldn’t make it up.
Via: Truthstream Media – YouTube:
Drone Video of Epstein Island – Ambulance???
July 25th, 2019Someone using the alias Rusty Shackleford is flying a camera drone over Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James Island.
Here are all of the videos (expect these to be deleted at any moment because they are on YouTube).
You’ve probably seen the widely circulated video of the strange temple structure:
I went looking through the other videos and noticed that an ambulance is present on the island. What do you make of this?
If the place is this weird on the surface, the mind boggles at what’s happening in the underground facilities.
Via: Rusty Shackleford – YouTube:
